# MAO 0.5.21

Released 2026-09-19.

## Workspaces, folders and canvases

The sidebar now has three levels:

- **Workspaces** are named places you create by name. They do not point at a directory.
- **Folders** group canvases inside a workspace.
- **Canvases** are one repository each, and are the only thing that asks you to pick a directory.

Right-click a workspace or folder for **New folder**, **New canvas**, **Rename** and **Delete**. **New canvas** opens a folder picker and checks that you chose a Git repository. Deleting a folder keeps what was inside it and moves it up a level. Opening a project from the command palette adds it as a canvas to the current workspace.

Workspaces and folders can be collapsed with their chevron, and MAO remembers which ones are open. Your existing sidebar is converted automatically, and a backup of the old arrangement is kept.

## A clearer first launch

A fresh install no longer shows a workspace named after whatever directory MAO was started from. After the onboarding tour you see a short screen with two actions: create a workspace by name, or open your first project. Choosing a repository opens its canvas straight away.

To create things later, right-click the empty area below the sidebar list, or the root row, for **New workspace** and **New folder**.

## Drag and drop in the sidebar

You can now arrange the sidebar by dragging, as well as through the right-click menus.

- Drag a canvas or folder into another folder, or onto the root, within the same workspace. Dropping into another workspace, or a folder into itself, is refused.
- A drag only starts after a small movement, so clicks stay clicks. The row you picked up stays in place, dimmed with a dashed outline.
- A dashed row shows exactly where the item will land.
- When a drop is refused, the dragged label says why, for example "already here" or "inside itself".
- Dragging near the top or bottom edge scrolls the list. Press Esc, or release somewhere invalid, to cancel.

## A zoomed-out view of the workspace

Zooming out past 25% now shows every canvas in the current workspace as an island, with its agents drawn as small markers and folders shown as regions. You can zoom out to 10%, and drag islands to arrange them. The layout is kept outside your repositories.

## Fixes

- Layers in repositories where an old `canvas.json` had been committed lost their layout every time the canvas was opened. Layer layouts are now kept, and archived layers recover their canvas where it can still be found.
- With several API keys on an agent account, a key that had been skipped could be used again on the very next launch instead of rotating to the next one.

Source: https://trymao.dev/changelog/0.5.21